Entering the Maze of Dreams and Thorns
by Silver Quil
Summary: The red rose girl was gone, but Garry was always searching for her. In the midst of the fake gallery he finds another red rose, it's outlines tinged with golden.


**Well, this idea has been lurking around in my head for a while now AND IT WON'T GO AWAY. So, here you are. Behold the first Ib/FMA crossover one-shot! (With fem!ed)**

**I don't own Ib or FMA.**

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Garry had been in this place for quite some time, the _fake _Garry that was. He was always searching for her, always, _always_, that little girl with the stunning red eyes and silky chocolate hair. Paintings of roses appeared whenever someone came the the fabricated gallery, and they spattered with blood when they died or disappeared when they escaped. Some were white, some were purple, but he was just looking for the right one, _the red one. _So today, he was just waiting around in that little hall of his, gazing at the many blood spattered roses, when it happened. The painting of the little red rose appeared, _his little red rose_. But there was something different about it, was it just him, or did there seem to be a little golden sheen on the rose? No matter, his little rose was back, and there was _nothing _that was going to stop him from keeping his little rose here, _forever. _

He stalked down the corridors, asking statues and paintings along the way if they had seen a red rose, his little red flower, and told them not to harm her. Eventually he found a painting that said he had seen someone down in the red hallway, he thanked it and continued on, humming a soft lullaby to himself. He was walking along, steps careful and quiet as he stepped along almost gracefully, when he stepped on a hand. Garry jumped back, he didn't want to harm his little flower.

But it wasn't her.

Instead, a head of flaxen hair like the sun greeted him along with blazing yellow eyes hazed with pain. Clutched in the creature's hand was a wilted red rose, gold framing the edges. He almost cried out in rage. He had wanted his little flower, but instead he had gotten this creature with wheat-coloured fur. Garry wanted to take the rose from the creature's hand and rip it to shreds, effectively ending its life.

But he didn't.

Instead he took the rose from it, stuck it in a vase and roughly ripped it out, a petal falling to the ground. The rose had had one petal, then ten petals, now it had nine. The creature was sitting up in the hall when he came back, clutching its side and trying to get up. The yellow eyes instantly turned to him when he walked back to her, eyes falling on the rose that was held out to it. It snatched it from Garry and backed away glaring. You could almost picture it hissing in contempt.

"Who are you?" The creature said with a voice like honey, Its voice was higher than he expected. Garry raised an eyebrow.

"Me? I'm Garry, you must be from the gallery too. Did you get trapped here as well?" He used a fake smile that didn't reach to his eyes. The creature softened.

"Yeah, I got trapped here too. I'm still tryin' to get out," the golden creature said, "My name is Ed by the way." Garry smiled coldly again and nodded.

"I'm trying to get out too, should we go together? I can't very well leave a lady all by herself." The creature called Ed stiffened.

"I'm a boy..." The creature hissed, hair flying as he looked away.

But he didn't look masculine, he looked more feminine and girly. The long braided hair and soft golden eyes sure gave that impression. But Garry merely raised an eyebrow and apologized. The creature - Ed - tossed it's head and glared.

So Garry sighed, and started to run up ahead, Ed following soon after.

...

Ed's heart was beating a mile a minute when 'Garry' addressed him as a girl. No one was supposed to know that she was a girl, after all, they didn't allow girls into the state alchemist division. She was sure she _looked like _a boy. Her small chest was bound by strips of cloth as to flatten her _assets, _she wore the platform boots to look taller, and she wore small shoulder pads to have broader shoulders. How did he think she was a girl?

The disguise was for her to look like a boy, and it was so good it had fooled Hawkeye. How could he had seen through it? But then again, her stupidity had made her disguise fail before, that was how Mustang found out.

_"Fullmetal! Are you ok in there?" A dark haired man stood outside a dorm, knocking on the door._

_"Yeah I'm fine bastard, just go away." The dark haired man frowned._

_"Alphonse is really worried about you, you can't just go running off like that." The man wore a worried expression, his black eyes growing even darker._

_"Tell him I'm fine, there's nothing wrong with me Colonel Bastard." The thin eyebrows of 'Colonel Bastard' pointed downward, lips curling into a smirk._

_"If there's nothing wrong then I guess you won't mind if I come in." _

_"No! Wait, stop!" But it was too late, the door was open revealing a girl with bindings on her chest. Her face was a blazing chagrin, and she quickly tried to cover herself with the black jacket that laid down nearby. The visitor's eyes widened, then narrowed._

_"It seems you've been keeping secrets Fullmetal." The girl's face was ablaze with shame and some anger, and she bowed her head. The bangs covered her eyes that were sure to be showing some kind of turmoil and strife._

_She turned away from him, speaking in a quiet voice. "They never would have let me become a state alchemist if they knew I was a girl Mustang. That's why I pretended." _

_Silence was the only thing in the room for a while, it choked the life out of the conversation. Mustang finally broke It._

_"I won't tell." The golden eyes of the female widened in surprise, she nodded gratefully._

_"Though, this new revelation about your gender really explains your lack of height."_

_The girl's face exploded with colour. "YOU BASTARD! WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO LACKING IN HEIGHT THAT A SINGLE MOLECULE OF AIR COULD CRUSH HER!?"_

_"You."_

_"ARGH!"_

She winced at the memory. After that incident, she was more careful when locking doors behind her. Mustang also teased her about her lack of...development in the chest area, after he found out, which was also a touchy subject.

"Watch out!" A black scaled hand came out of the wall to scratch her shoulder, one petal fell of the rose and she felt weaker. A hand grabbed hold of her hand, pulling her away from the black scaled hand. She tripped, falling right on Garry's chest. Her face heated up a little before she made an angry mask and pushed herself away from the teen.

"Watch where you're going Bastard!"

"I was trying to help you-"

"Well you didn't really help at all." She muttered. Garry frowned.

"Look, I know that we're not not the best of of friends...But we have to work together to get out of this place."

"You didn't have to help me, I would've done fine on my own!" Garry glared at the remark.

"You were laying on the ground with only one petal on your rose. You would've died if one of the paintings got you."

"I could have gotten up and stuck it in a vase."

"You're so short though, and you would've-"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT A NINE YEAR OLD IS TALLER THAN HE-HIM!" Garry didn't seem to catch her mistake, all he did was frown at her like a disapproving parent scolding their child. He sighed, cold blue eyes flickering with some kind of emotion. Was it annoyance? Perhaps it was anger, or maybe sadness?

"Look, I know this isn't exactly the best of partnerships but...we need to work together to get out of this place."

Something felt weird when he said that, like he was lying about something. It was a peculiar feeling, a twisting of her stomach, nausea, and uneasiness. Still, she nodded her head reluctantly. His eyes lit up like a kid who had discovered that his birthday, Halloween, and Christmas were being celebrated on the same day.

"Alright then! Let's get going!" He tugged on her hand, pulling her towards the door down the hall and dodging the hands that reached for them from the sides of the wall. One of them caught in the fabric of the girl's red coat, tearing off a corner of the baggy sleeve. She yelped and drew back her hand, running ahead of Garry. He looked on, surprised, then raced after the girl.

"Hey! Get back here!"

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**So how was it? This is just a one-shot so I might continue if there's enough interest. **


End file.
